Who else could write a serious book about automotive design and national characteristics?
Stephen Bayley takes it on It is almost impossible – a futile and dismaying task – to write a serious book about car design, so I am going to attempt one. Since most of the important data is out of the public domain because it has either been destroyed or remains commercially sensitive, a proper academic account is not feasible. Even with access to the product planning papers and the inter-office memos, the volume of material would be so vast as to make a proper narrative history unnegotiable.
